Saturday, July 14, 2012

All-Star Week Recap.

Some brief and belated thoughts on the biggest week of
baseball in Kansas City since 1985:

1) With baseball’s spotlight on Kansas City for the first
time since 1985…everyone killed it. The team, the ballpark, the fans, the city,
the barbeque, everyone. While I couldn’t stay for the All-Star Game itself, I
couldn’t miss out on the festivities entirely, so I flew in Saturday morning
and stayed until Sunday night.

It was obvious from the time I got off the plane that Kansas
City was determined to do this right. There were signs everywhere at KCI
referencing the All-Star Game, and while that might seem like a small and
simple thing, if this game had taken place at US Cellular Park, you probably
could have changed planes in O’Hare and never known the All-Star Game was in
town.

That’s the advantage that a smaller market has when it gets
to host an event like this: it’s not embarrassed to go all out. From the
billboards all around town promoting the game, to the radioactive blue dye they
put in the fountains outside FanFest, Kansas City made it clear: this was a BIG
DEAL to the city.

2) It was a big deal to the fans as well. I went to FanFest
on Saturday, and it was a zoo. Autograph lines snaked around for hours. I went
to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum – which everyone should go see if you
haven’t been there, but you already knew that – for a Baseball Prospectus event
on Sunday morning. We held the event across the street at the Gem Theater, and
then went over to the museum proper, which was standing room only to hear Dave
Winfield interview former Negro Leaguers talk about their experiences.

I then headed over to Kauffman Stadium to prep for the
Futures Game. The game started at 4:05, but when I pulled in to the parking lot
at 1:30, it was already a quarter full and people were tailgating. Fans were tailgating two-and-a-half hours
early to a minor-league exhibition.

As you may have heard, the Futures Game was a sellout. While
there were a few empty pockets of seats in the stands, there were only a few –
announced attendance was just over 40,000, and that seemed like an accurate
count. It was easily the most well-attended Futures Game in history. While I
had to leave to catch a flight, I’m told that more people stuck around to watch
the Celebrity Softball Game afterwards than attended most previous Futures
Games. Wil Myers was serenaded like a conquering hero.

3) And that, of course, was just a prelude to one of the
great random moments as a Royals fan of the last quarter-century. I don’t have
anything to add to the coverage of the Can0 Affair itself. Robinson Cano was
booed like no Home Run Derby participant in the event’s history, and put on the
worst performance of any Home Run Derby participant in the event’s history.
(While a few others have also been skunked, I doubt anyone else hit three foul balls among his ten swings.)
Those two things are not coincidental. Kansas City fans got into his head, and
it was a beautiful thing.

The media reaction was, for the most part, understanding if
not necessarily supportive. There were, though, a few in the media who thought
that the reaction of Royals fans was tasteless, classless, and made the city
look small and provincial. With all due respect, I couldn’t disagree more. If
that’s what you took away from what happened, then you must actually think that
the booing was about Robinson Cano.

It wasn’t, not really. It was about a fan base that, with
the eyes of the nation turned on them for the first time in decades,
collectively said, “WE LOVE BASEBALL AROUND HERE. NOT EVEN 27 YEARS OF SUCKING
CHANGES THAT. GIVE US A WINNER AND YOU’LL SEE.” For the rest of the nation, the
Royals have – justifiably – been irrelevant for the past 27 years. This was a
chance to remind the nation that while the Royals may have been irrelevant, Royals fans were not. Royals fans got
their moment, and they owned it.

Two comments from the media stood out: the first was that
some players were so turned off by the display that they would be less likely
to come to Kansas City to play in the future. The second was that if Royals
fans really wanted to show their displeasure, they should have been booing the
Glass family.

Regarding the first: really? Are you telling me that Cole
Hamels might be less likely to sign with the Royals this off-season? Hold on
while I peel myself off of this fainting couch. Kansas City has never been a premier destination for
free agents, and for the Royals to sign a free agent, they usually have to
offer something no other market can – namely, more money. That’s how free
agency works. And if the Royals offer a free agent more money than anyone else
this winter, he’s not going to say, “yeah, but they booed Robinson Cano.”
Otherwise no one would sign with the Phillies, who, you know, boo their own players.

Speaking of which: what ballplayer looks at that display of
righteous anger at an opposing player
for snubbing their own player and
thinks, “Man, these fans hate the
other team, and they love their own
players. I DON’T WANT TO PLAY HERE.” Booing Cano was not an expression of
hatred – it was an expression of passion and loyalty. Loyalty to one of the
guys who wears our uniform, who we were led to believe would get to take part
in a meaningless but enjoyable spectacle, and then was snubbed.

Personally, I don’t think this affects the Royals’ chances
to sign Cole Hamels. But you know who it does
affect? BILLY BUTLER. It’s way too soon to know whether the Royals will even
want to re-sign Butler at the end of his contact, which ends (if they pick up
his option) after the 2015 season. He’ll be almost 30 then, and 30-year-old
glacier-slow right-handed-hitting DHs don’t typically age well. But if Butler
is still an elite hitter and the Royals do want to re-sign him for 2 or 3
years, you don’t think he’ll remember this supreme exhibition of love from his
fan base? Butler was beaming from the time he was introduced on Monday until
the game was over on Tuesday. Butler’s a Kansas City kind of guy, and as such
was really the perfect choice to represent the Royals at the All-Star Game.
Long after this incident is forgotten and Cano has gone back to torturing the
Royals on the field, Butler will remember how the city embraced him, and
defended him to the world.

And regarding the second point: did you notice how David
Glass wasn’t introduced to the crowd? I mean, if Royals fans were told that
David Glass would be on the field in front of 45,000 fans, and if they were
given a week to prepare about it, you don’t think they would have booed him
until he fled inside a dugout?

The message that Royals fans sent to major league baseball?
It was also a message to the Glass Family: THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF YOU’LL
JUST BUILD US A WINNER. What bothers me about the Glass family’s unwillingness
to spend on major-league payroll* isn’t that it’s cheap: it’s that it’s poor
business. Spending money on player salaries isn’t a cost – it’s an investment.
(Unless you spend it on Jose Guillen.)

*: As recently as 2 or
3 years ago, I felt that the Glass family was spending a reasonable amount of
money on major-league payroll, particularly given how much they were spending
to sign amateur talent. But this season, the Royals’ payroll is roughly $64
million. That’s almost identical to their payroll in 2008, and more than $10
million LESS than their payroll in 2009 and 2010. Given how much industry
revenues have increased the last few years, AND given that the Royals are now
prohibited from spending as much money in the draft and in Latin America,
that’s inexcusable.

If All-Star week didn’t convince the Glass family that
there’s an upside to spending the money to build a contender, nothing will.

4) The game itself? Well, it sort of sucked. How appropriate
that the American League suffered the worst loss in its history. That would be
The Most Royals Moment of the season, except, of course…

5) …Melky Cabrera was named MVP of the All-Star Game. Yeah,
hard to top that one.

6) Before this week, I had said that as it had been nearly
40 years since the Royals had hosted an All-Star Game, it would probably be
another 40 years before they did again. But really, Kansas City put on a show,
and don’t think that The Powers That Be didn’t notice. One of the reasons it’s
been so long is that, for the past 20-25 years, virtually every All-Star Game
has been awarded to a team that had just built (or renovated) their stadium.
Which was 80% of the teams in baseball.

But that ballpark boom is almost over – there’s maybe 5 or 6
teams left to go. At that point, the game will likely be awarded at least
partly based on where it’s likely to get the most attention. And at least
locally, it’s hard for a game to have received more attention than this one. I
don’t think Kansas City will get to host another game in 5 or 10 years, but at
some point in the 2020s, it’s a distinct possibility.

Hopefully there will be some other meaningful games at
Kauffman Stadium between now and then.

7) And on that note, I wrote about the Royals for Grantland
on Tuesday, which you can read here. I can’t say I was very nice, but I can say
that I was fair. The Royals are not in a good place right now. That doesn’t
mean that things can’t turn around quickly, but the boundless optimism of 18
months ago has largely melted in the face of the fierce heat of reality. The
Best Farm System In The History Of Whatever hasn’t lived up to the hype yet,
and Dayton Moore hasn’t done enough to compensate. With 2013 shaping up to be a
make-or-break year for him, he’s got about eight months to overhaul the
rotation and fix his offense. That’s a tall order.

8 comments:

That overhaul should begin today with shedding Dyson and Bourgeois. How do two pinch-runners do such boneheaded things on the bases? Grrrr!! Dyson was the winning run and gets picked off second? Seriously? Can't stand these two.

Although the Dyson error was a big one, I was resigned to a loss by that time. With Yost leaving Chen in one batter too long (for the umpteenth time) and Broxton being Broxton, I was amazed that they didn't lose this one a lot earlier. To turn the team around, there has to be some dumping and some addition. One dump needs to be Ned. He has demonstrated, since his time in Milwaukee, that he cannot manage a pitching staff. Add a young manager who can motivate and a coaching staff that can help him manage a game.

Rany,I love the Cano thing. What kills me about all this (and not many have mentioned) is that if the situation was reversed, in some weird alternate universe, and Butler snubbed Cano or any other Yankee in New York he would have had to wear body armor to the game. The local stores would have had to stock up on batteries. Classless? Please.

The national media and large market fans have basically ignored the Royals and their fans for twenty five years. I think it's great to be able to return the favor. Do you really care what they think? I don't.

The vaunted farm system has really been a disappointment. All the pitchers either crapped out or blew their arms out. And the only hitter to navigate to the bigs successfully is Moose.

Gio and Hosmer have just cratered against major league pitching. Yes, they are young but with the Gritty Getz around Gio will never get the number of at bats he may need to sort things out. All we can hope for Hosmer is that he gets it together in the off season because nothing good is happening duering the season.

KC was an awesome mid-summer classic host. The MLB net coverage was superb. And I'll never apologize for hating the Bronx Bombers. Or the Raiders for that matter. Our pitching is in shambles. We sure took it on the chin in the Sanchez ($5.6M) deal. I just watched Melky tie the Braves up with his ninth HR. Ouch- a painful reminder of another front office blunder. The Grantland piece was right-on. Your GM comments translated well the frustrations of the Fan base. We had very high hopes for the Moore era. A Schuerholz protege- how could we go wrong? But hey, losing sucks and we've been down way too long. We need to keep Will Smith in the rotation the rest of the way. We do have more talent in the pipeline and if we just take our hands off of the wheel and don't make any more stupid give aways (like trading BB for a "proven starter") we should go over .500 next season. At this point, parting with Yuny, Frenchy, or Broxton wouldn't upset me- if we could get back some real value. With Frenchy's paltry production, we should probably go ahead and see if Myers can win the job the rest of the way. Keeping Frenchy on the bench would be OK too. Let's save Odirizzi until next spring. Thanks for your peerless Royals insight.